Shell’s Shares Fall As Q1 Earnings Plunge 58%

Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS.A) reported first-quarter earnings down 58 percent over the same quarter last year, and net income of $484 million, down from $4.43 billion, representing an 89% drop in profits and significant miss on revenue estimates.

Driven by sustained low oil prices, Shell has missed its revenue estimates, but its profit estimates were higher than analyst expectations, while it also exceeded earnings expectations in its chemical and oil refining segments.

According to Shell, profit adjusted for changes in the value of inventories and excluding one-time items dropped to $1.55 billion from $3.74 billion in the first quarter of last year.

The supergiant has vowed to cut its capital investment budget by billions in order to maintain dividend payments to shareholders. Shell is eyeing $30 billion in asset sales.

"The key point going forward is expenditure and asset disposals and if those targets can be achieved," Brendan Warn, managing director at BMO Capital Markets in London, told Bloomberg. "The earnings and production from BG show they bought that company at just the right time."